Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry is the first game in the Devil May Cry series, Created and directed by Hideki Kamiya featuring the main playable character, Dante, a son of Sparda, as the main protagonist.

The game opens with a cutscene where a woman named Trish bursts into Dante's shop and asks for help. The game is set entirely in and around a castle where both Trish and Dante go to on Mallet Island.

Development
Devil May Cry started life as the first version of Resident Evil 4. Game director Hideki Kamiya's goal for this new Resident Evil game was to be on fast, stylish combat. However, during development, the combat system strayed too far from the survival horror concept, and series producer Shinji Mikami convinced Hideki Kamiya and the rest of the development team to make the project into an entirely new game.

The original story, while still known as a Resident Evil game, was based on unravelling the mystery surrounding the body of the protagonist named 'Tony', an invincible man with skills and an intellect exceeding that of normal people, with his superhuman abilities explained with biotechnology. The cast of characters remained largely identical to that in Sugimura's scenario,&#91;11&#93; although the hero's mother&#91;12&#93; and his father,&#91;13&#93; the latter an early version of Umbrella's founder Lord Spencer,&#91;14&#93; &#91;15&#93; were written out of the story and 'Tony' became 'Dante' (source Resident Evil Wikipedia: 'Resident Evil 4 Development'). Before the game became 'Devil May Cry' the name working title was 'Karniva.' Director Kamiya was adamant about it been spelled with a 'K.'

However the name Tony is still used in the first Devil May Cry novel and is engraved upon Ebony & Ivory and Luce & Ombra.

A brief account of the development history of the original Devil May Cry trilogy aired January 14, 2013 on the Machinima YouTube network as part of their ongoing series "All Your History Are Belong To Us".

Gameplay
Being the first of the series, Devil May Cry introduced a host of new elements to the gaming community. Chief among them is the Stylish Rank, which grades the player's performance in combat. The game itself is split into Missions, which are individually scored according to various factors, such as Orbs gathered and damage taken. Additionally, Devil May Cry did away with the pre-rendered backgrounds of prior Resident Evil games in order to allow for a dynamic camera system.

Other innovations include the Devil Trigger, which increases Dante's combat effectiveness; the Orb system, where killing enemies with a high style rank yields higher amounts of Orbs; Red Orbs in general, which act as the game's currency to buy abilities and items; and others.

Plot
Devil May Cry begins when Dante is attacked in his office by a mysterious woman named Trish. He impresses her by easily brushing off her assault, and tells her that he hunts demons in pursuit of those who killed his mother and brother. She says her attack was a test, and that the demon emperor Mundus, whom Dante holds responsible for the deaths of his family, is planning a return. The scene jumps to their arrival at an immense castle, whereupon Trish abruptly leaps and vanishes over a high wall.

Dante explores the castle and encounters the game's stock enemies, the demonic Marionettes. He also finds a new sword called Alastor, and battles the first boss, a giant spider demon named Phantom. Dante wins the battle, but in what becomes a recurring theme, the defeated boss monster reappears a short time later in a corridor, forcing the player to choose a narrow escape or to fight in the tight confines. After further exploration and combat, Dante battles a demon named Nelo Angelo, who impresses Dante with his confidence. The demon wins, but suddenly flees upon seeing the half of an amulet Dante wears. The demon attacks twice more in later missions, and is eventually revealed to be Dante's identical twin brother, Vergil. After Vergil's final defeat, his amulet joins with his brother's half, and Force Edge, the game's default sword which belonged to the twins' father, becomes the powerful Sparda sword.

When Dante next meets Trish, she betrays him and reveals that she too is working for Mundus. But when her life is endangered, Dante chooses to save her. Saying he only did so because of her resemblance to his mother, he warns her to stay away. Yet when he finally confronts Mundus, who is about to kill Trish for his plan, Dante again chooses to save her and is injured. Mundus tries to finish him off, but Trish takes the attack instead. Dante becomes enraged and unleashes his full power, a power that was inherited by Sparda. In the cutscenes, the statue starts to crack as it glows to release inside of it, Mundus spread his wings to shape the background into a dimension that he transports Dante into it. Dante questions the reason of creating Trish while Mundus rhetorically answers that he could create anything, just like he created Trish for his plot to weaken Dante. With a mighty imperative word to silent the Demon Emperor, Mundus flies up to the clouds just to lure Dante. He transforms into Sparda´s form as the epic battle begins.

Dante is victorious, and leaves the amulet and sword with Trish's immobile body before departing. Later Mundus returns and corners Dante, who is now greatly weakened, before he can flee the island; but Trish comes in time and lends Dante her power. Dante defeats Mundus, who vows to return and rule the human world. When Trish tries to apologize she begins to cry, and Dante tells her it means she has become human and not just a devil, because "devils never cry". Dante and Trish escape on a plane as the island collapses. After the credits, it is revealed that Dante and Trish are working together as partners, and have renamed the shop "Devil May Cry".

Difficulty Modes
Devil May Cry is known for its unforgiving difficulty. There are four modes in total: Easy, Normal, Hard and Dante Must Die, with each one increasingly in difficulty. Players start on Normal mode, and can unlock the others after playing the game.

Dante
This is a default costume used in the game

The Legendary Dark Knight Sparda
Unlocked after finishing Hard Mode. The player assumes the role of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, replacing Dante with his father in every cutscene as well. Unlike Dante, this costume starts out with a Devil Arm, Yamato, and thus, can even activate Devil Trigger at the beginning of the game and the character´s shadow shows Sparda´s demonic form. Yamato operates exactly like Alastor, however, so it appears to be more of a model swap than a new weapon. The same goes for Ebony & Ivory, which have been changed to Luce & Ombra, respectively. In Devil Trigger mode, this costume will always take on the demonic form of Sparda. Attacks for Alastor and Ifrit remain the same. Yamato however transforms into his namesake weapon. For balancing reasons, this version of the Sparda sword behaves just like the standard non-devil trigger version that the player gets later. The enhanced damage from the sword and the devil trigger's resistance to knockdown make it a bit stronger than the standard Sparda sword however. The save portrait used is Sparda wielding his namesake weapon. This costume also features unique battle music for the first and second portions of the game that replaces the original battle tracks. Boss themes and the castle battles at night remain unchanged.

Super Dante
Unlocked after clearing Dante Must Die mode. This costume is identical to Dante in appearance, but the player now has unlimited Devil Trigger, enabling indefinite time periods in Devil Trigger. The Nightmare Beta will also not drain the DT gauge as well. His portrait is the same as Dante's but with an electrical aura surrounding his body.

Awards
In the edition packaged with the Devil May Cry HD Collection, players can unlock PS3 Trophies and Xbox 360 Achievements for their exploits.